1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-touch compliant touchscreen panel unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touchscreen panel unit is an input device whose display surface is touched directly for operating an apparatus. Unlike a keyboard or a mouse, the touchscreen panel unit makes it possible to make inputs by directly touching buttons or a software keyboard displayed on the display screen, thus having the advantage of enabling intuitive operations and making operations easy to understand even for users unfamiliar with the apparatus. A liquid crystal display (LCD) may be used for the touchscreen panel unit.
Further, there is a touchscreen panel unit that can be operated by being touched at multiple points simultaneously. Such a touchscreen panel unit is called a multi-touch touchscreen panel unit. In the multi-touch touchscreen panel unit, it is possible to make an input by simultaneously touching multiple points on the display screen. This enables multiple users to work together by touching a large screen. Further, it is possible to move and rotate an object and to zoom in or out an image by touching the screen simultaneously with multiple fingers.
For related techniques, reference may be made to, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2007-80291, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2007-4762, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-306247.
The touchscreen panel unit displays externally input information on a display screen. Further, in response to a user touching a predetermined region displayed on the display screen, the touchscreen panel unit detects the touched predetermined region, and outputs information corresponding to the predetermined region. Further, in response to application of pressure to a predetermined region on the display screen with a pen dedicated to touchscreen panels, such as a stylus, or an ordinary pen, the touchscreen panel unit detects the predetermined region and outputs information corresponding to the predetermined region. A user can perform an operation corresponding to a predetermined region displayed on the display by touching the predetermined region.
If information to be displayed does not fit in the display screen, the touchscreen panel unit can specify a displayable partial region of the information to be displayed. By moving the specified displayable partial region, it is possible to display the information to be displayed. For example, the displayable partial region is specified with a scroll bar. The scroll bar is a graphical user interface (GUI) for moving a display region. Generally, the scroll bar includes a horizontal scroll bar for moving the displayable partial region horizontally relative to the display screen and a vertical scroll bar for moving the displayable partial region vertically relative to the display screen. For example, the horizontal scroll bar is provided at the bottom of the displayable partial region and the vertical scroll bar is provided on the right side of the displayable partial region.